Hand lever



y 2, 1940- s. SCHNELL 0 ,6 7

HAND LEVER Filed Dec. 5, 1958 JHIINIIHIIH Patented July 2, 1940 rarest orrice HAND LEVER Steve Schnell, St. Louis, Mo,

Electric Corporation, tion of Delaware assignor to Wagner St. Louis, Mo., a corpora Application December 5, 1938, Serial No. 243,904

6 Claims. (01. 74 541) My invention relates to levers and more particularly to a hand lever for actuating a pull-rod or other member.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a lever mechanism for operating a pull-rod which will permit the operator to move the pullrod in a single direction by successive oscillations of the lever and to positively hold the pull-rod in any desired position.

Another object of my invention is to provide means in a hand lever mechanism of the type referred to whereby the pull-rod can be'returned to its original inoperative position.

Other objects of my invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is aside view of my improved hand lever mechanism showing the parts in inoperative position; Figure 21s an end view of the mechanism; and Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 3-4 of Figure 1.

I have shown my invention associated with a hand brake lever which is employed to operate a brake rod connected to a brake, the lever being commonly referred to as an emergency lever or parking brake lever. The lever and associated mechanism, however, may be employed in any place where a hand lever is employed to operate a pull-rod or other member on nected to any type of mechanism.

, Referring to the drawing in detail, numeral i indicates a suitable support upon which are mounted twospaced apart plates 2 and thy means of stud bolts 4, the plates being held in spaced relation by suitable spacers on the bolts. A hollow hand lever t is formed with spaced ends I which are pivotally mounted between plates 2 and 3 by a pivot bolt 8. Also pivotally mounted on this bolt and lying between the ends I of the lever is a sector plate 5 which extends below the body of the plates 2 and 3 and is provided with teeth it. The sector plate is connected to the pull-rod or brake rod l l which leads to the braking mechanism (not shown).

The forward ends of plates 2 and it are extended to project beyond the toothed edge of sector ii and these extensions have pivotally mounted thereon a detent 52 which cooperates with the teeth in of the sector, plate to hold this plate and the brake rod in any position they may assume. The detent is biased toward operative position by a spring it having one end connected to the pin it carried by the detent and the other end connected to plate Zas shown. A bell-cranhlever i5 is pivotally mounted on the spacer 5 of the forward stud bolt 1 and the lower arm of this lever extends to a point adjacent detent i2 and is provided with a cam surface l6 for engaging the pin M and moving the detent to an inoperative position whenever lever I5 is 5 swung in a counter-clockwise direction. The upper arm of lever it extends between the ends l. of lever tend to a point below the hollow portion of the lever whereby the lever may be actuated by a rod if! lying within the hollow portion 10 of the lever. This rod extends above the upper end of lever i3 and is provided with a button [8 wh reby the rod can be conveniently actuated by the thumb of the operator when his hand grasps the top of the lever 6. It is thus seen that when rod 1 is pushed downwardly, the bell-crank lever i5 will be rotated to move detent l2 to inoperative position.

The sector plate 9 has a cut away to receive a pawl by a pin Eli to the lower ends 1 of the hollow lever ii. The cut out portion is irregular in shape in order to provide two spaced apart shoulders or abutmentsurfaces 2| and 22 for cooperation portion of its body with pawl iii. The pawl carries a pin 23 which 25 projects through a curved slot 2 in the supporting plate 2 and the pin has connected thereto one end of a spring 25, the other end of said spring eing hooked in a notch in the top edge of plate 2.

The parts of the mechanism are shown in their inoperative positions in Figure 1. Under these conditions the upper end of the lever B is in its forward position and the sector plate 9 is in its rearward position permitting the brake rod to be in its inoperative position. The jacent the abutmentsurface 2i. When it is desired to operate the brake rod, the operator grasps the upper end of lever (i and moves it rearwardly as indicated by the arrow A. This will cause pawl E9 toengage surface 2! and swing the sector in the direction indicated by the arrow B, pin 23 moving forward in slot 24. During this movementof the sector plate, detent it will ride over the teeth it on the sector plate.

if the movement of the sector. plate is such as to 5 in Figural. This will result in pawl I9 moving 55.

I9 pivotally mounted 20 pawl I 9 is adrearwardly and relative to the sector plate 9, which is held stationary by detent l2, and to a position where it will engage abutment surface 22 under the action of spring 25. If lever 6 is now moved rearwardly again in the direction of arrow A, the sector plate will be moved forwardly by pawl 59, thereby moving the brake rod to a position where the brake is properly applied. When this position is reached, the detent 112 will hold the sector plate in the new position by engaging one of the teeth II] on the sector plate. 1

When it is desired to release the brakeand the brake rod, the operator need only press the button W on the top of the lever 6 after pulling the lever slightly rearward in the direction indicated bythe arrow A. This will result in the bellcrank lever l5 being moved to disengage the detent l2 from the engaged tooth on the sector plate 9 and permit the sector plate to be moved by the brake rod and usual springs (not shown) in the direction opposite that indicated by the arrow B. When the sector plate reaches the position where pin 23 on pawl 19 engages the end of slot 2%, the pawl will be forced out of engagement with the abutment surface 22 permitting the sector plate to continue its rearward movement'to the position where the pawl will engage the abutment surface 2| as shown in Figure 1.

" My invention has been found to be very useful 'Where it is desired to have a high leverage ratio for the hand lever but the available space for the movement of the lever is limited and insuflicient to permit one stroke of the lever to move the pull-rod the necessary distance. By the use of the mechanism just described, if one stroke of the lever does not move the pull-rod as far as desired another stroke may be employed at the same leverage ratio.

Being aware of the possibility of modifications in the particular structure herein described without departing from the fundamental principles of my invention, I do not intend that its scope be limited except as set forth by the appended claims. 1

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

. 1...In a lever mechanism, a support, a lever pivoted on the support, a member pivoted on the support coaXially with the lever, an actuatable member connected to the pivoted member, a pawl carried by the lever, spaced shoulders on the pivoted member and adapted to cooperate with the pawl, means for holding the pivoted member in a plurality of operative positions, said lever when moved in one direction being capable of moving said pivoted member in one direction by the engagement of said pawl with one of said shoulders and to move said pivoted member an additional distance in the same direction by an oscillatory movement and as a result of the pawl being caused to engage the other shoulder while the holding means is effective to prevent return movement of the pivoted member, means comprising a hand-operated member on the lever and a continuous operative connection to the holding means for releasing said holding means at any position of the lever in its path of movement, and means independent of the hand-operated memher for automatically disengaging said pawl from the said other shoulder after said holding means has been released and the pivoted member permitted to return to its inoperative position.

2. In a lever mechanism, a support, a lever pivoted on the support, a member pivoted on the support coaxially with the lever, an actuatable member connected to the pivoted member, a pawl carried by the lever, spaced shoulders on the pivoted member and adapted to cooperate with the pawl, means for holding the pivoted member in a plurality of operative positions, said lever when moved in one direction being capable of moving said pivoted member in one direction by the engagement of said pawl with one of said shoulders and to move said pivoted member an additional distance in the same direction by an oscillatory movement and as a result of the pawl being caused to engage the other shoulder while the holding means is effective to prevent return movement of the pivoted member, means for releasing said holding means at any position of the lever, and means independent of the holding means and its releasing means and operable by the releasing movement of the pivoted member for automatically causing said pawl to be released from the other shoulder after said pivoted memher is released by the holding means and permitted to return to its inoperative position.

3. In a lever mechanism, a support, a lever pivoted on the support, a toothed sector plate pivoted on the support, a pull-rod connected to the sector plate, a detent carried by the support and biased for cooperation with the teeth of the sector plate, a pawl carried by the lever, means forming spaced shoulders on the sector plate for cooperating with the pawl and permitting the lever to first move the sector plate in one direction by the engagement of the pawl with one shoulder and then to move the sector plate farther in the same direction by the engagement of the pawl with the other shoulder and as a result of an oscillatory movement of the lever, and manually-controlled means comprising a handoperated member on the lever and a member pivoted on the support for releasing the detent.

4. In a lever mechanism, a support, a lever pivoted on the support, a toothed sector plate pivoted on the support, a pull-rod connected to the sector plate, a detent carried by the support and biased for cooperation with the teeth of the sector plate, a pawl carried by the lever, means forming spaced shoulders on the sector plate independent of the teeth on said plate for cooperating with the pawl and permitting the lever to first move the sector plate in one direction by engagement with one shoulder and then to move the sector plate farther in the same direction by engagement with the other shoulder and as a result of an oscillatory movement of the lever, manually-controlled means for releasing the detent at any position of the lever, and means independent of the detent and its control means for automatically returning the pawl to its inoperative position after the sector is released by the detent and permitted to return to its inoperative position. i

5. In a lever mechanism, a support, a lever pivoted on the support, a member pivoted on the support coaxially with the lever, an actuatable member connected to the pivoted member, a pawl carried by the lever, spaced shoulders on the pivoted member and adapted to cooperate with the pawl, means for holding the pivoted member in a plurality of operative positions, said lever when moved in one direction being capable of moving said pivoted member in one direction by the engagement of said pawl with one of said shoulders and also capable of moving said pivoted member an additional distance in the same direction by an oscillatory movement and as a result of the pawl being caused to engage the other shoulder while the holding means is efiective to prevent return movement of the pivoted member, means for releasing said holding means at any position of the lever, a stationary abutment carried by the support, and means carried by the pawl and adapted to engage the abutment and force the pawl out of engagement with the other shoulder as a result of the releasing movement of the piv- 3 means forming spaced shoulders on the sector plate for cooperating with the pawl and permitting the lever to first move the sector plate in one direction by the engagement of the pawl with one shoulder and then to move the sector plate farther in the same direction by the engagement of the pawl withthe other shoulder and as a result of an oscillatory movement of the lever, a

memberpivoted on the supporting plate for moving the detent to disengaged position, a rod car-' ried by the lever for operating the member and having a portion adapted for cooperation with a part of the hand of the operator, an abutment on the supporting plate, and means carriedby the pawl and adapted to engage the abutment for moving the pawl out of engagement with the other shoulder whenthe sector plate is released by the detent and permitted to return to its inoperative position.

STEVE SCHNELL. 

